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Chutzpah quote o’ the week

Published by digby on December 14, 2018

Chutzpah quote o’ the week

by digby

At a “heroes and villains” party

No, it’s not Trump, for a change. It’s his mouthpiece, Kellyann Conway, to CNN’s Andrew Cuomo last night during a back and forth that the Washington Post’s Philip Bump describes as an exchange in which “she was repeatedly forced into an unavoidable paradox: defending the veracity of a president who frequently lies.” Frankly, she didn’t seem to mind.

An excerpt:

“Here’s what I think. You need a better relationship with the truth, and not the truth as you want it to be.”

That comment happened during one of the most maddening, frustrating TV hits I’ve ever seen. Some excerpts:

CUOMO: He said on the plane, I know nothing about the Stormy Daniels —

CONWAY: Not a fact. When the payment was made. That’s what he meant.

CUOMO: He said, I don’t know anything about it, ask my lawyer.

CONWAY: No, no, no, I asked him specifically —

CUOMO: The truth is, he knew everything about it.

CONWAY: Christopher, that was April.

CUOMO: We have him on tape saying it. David Pecker, who’s a party to it, says he was there. It’s incontrovertible, that is why prosecutors believe it.

CONWAY: Whoa! It is not. You’re way offline, you’re showing partisan stripes, respectfully.

CUOMO: Am I?

CONWAY: You cannot say it’s incontrovertible. Yes. You cannot say it’s incontrovertible when it’s based on plea agreements by individuals —

CUOMO: That he knew? Incontrovertible.

CONWAY: Hold on. That’s not true. Hold on. … The president said in April, on Air Force One, they said, did you know about the payments? He said no. I asked the president, what did you mean by that? Because by April of 2018 the whole world knew, based on the Stormy Daniels revelation.

CUOMO: Good point. Why did he lie?

CONWAY: So, he wasn’t talking about what he knew in April. He did not lie! He’s talking about when the payment was made. I asked him that, and I said it on a couple Sunday shows that very next weekend in April or May, because I asked him, what did you mean? And he told me.

CUOMO: Why didn’t he ever clarify it?

CONWAY: I have the benefit and the privilege of asking the president. Hold on, he sends me, we do. We did qualify. It’s important. Christopher, in April of 2018, Donald J. Trump, the president, and everybody else were told about the payments.

CUOMO: He knew about it from its inception. He came up with the plan.

CONWAY: No, no, no, hold on. You’re saying ‘incontrovertible’ based on the testimony of people who are trying to get a better deal and a lighter sentence for themselves. Be fair here.

This fine fellow offered the best riposte:

That’s right. It’s Conway’s husband George. He also wrote this op-ed for the Washington Post making the legal argument that Trump did, in fact, break the law.

I don’t know how they stay married. If this is a game it’s a really cynical one.

I don’t recommend watching the whole thing. It makes you want to throw your shoe through the TV. But here’s a little taste if you want to see how bad it was.


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cheers — digby

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